In November we went with the children to Warsaw. The trip was planned for 3 days before Independence Day, which has recently been celebrated in Warsaw in quite a specific way.
When we decided to look for accommodation, we noticed that you can spend the night just a few meters from the Royal Palace. This place was the Castle Inn Hostel. Very nice location with nice rooms, friendly service and great breakfasts. In fact, the only con of this place was that it was hard to find a parking spot, because traffic through the old town is not allowed and in the end we left the car a few streets away.
The first place we’ve visited was the National Stadium, which we had so far only seen in photographs. We drove to the stadium by car – here a little advice – around the stadium there is paid parking, but it’s unguarded. Hmm, if not guarded, then why pay? A car can be left for free on Falcon Street (ul. Sokoła) just behind the railway tracks at the Warsaw Stadium station.
At the stadium you can select one of four prepared tours: footballer, exclusive, historic, well-known and well-liked. In addition to this offer there is prepared special tour dedicated to preschooler (for children under the age of 6). The last one is only available for groups with prior reservation and you can’t take it in on the go.
We chose to take the route career, during which we visited places such as football locker room, player bench, grass, conference room. See how it looked in our video:
The whole trip lasted an hour. The ticket also allowed us to go to the observation deck, which has a separate entrance from outside the building. You can go to the top of the highest bleachers and see the stadium in all its glory.
Regarding tickets – the normal cost of visiting is 20 PLN per adult + 12 PLN per child. There is, however, a family ticket for 55 PLN which we took. But, the family ticket is designed for 2+2 families only, so we needed to buy additional half-price ticket of third child.
In the evening, we explored a bit more the Old Town, we showed our children Mermaid statue and walked through Podwale street, Castle Square and Krakowskie Przedmieście. We were surprised that the Warsaw Old Town at night is not crowded – we were able to meet only a few people. A little more life was in the Castle Square (Plac Zamkowy) and the Krakow Suburb (Krakowskie Przedmieście).
In the evening we went for dinner. We chose the Giovanni Rubino restaurant, in which we tasted tomato soup and pizza.